Cut the deficit? Easy, if you don't mind a lynch mob.
As you know, the White House put together a bi-partisan commission to figure out how to get the deficit down. The group made what sounded like sensible proposals. Cut this鈥rim that. But even if the proposals were accepted in their entirety 鈥� which they won鈥檛 be 鈥� only about a third of the deficit would be eliminated.
In a nutshell 鈥� which is where these things belong 鈥� the feds spend about one out of every four GDP dollars in the US. They collect, however, only about one in every five or six dollars worth of GDP. That is a pretty big gap 鈥� nearly 10% of total GDP.
If you鈥檙e going to cut that kind of a deficit you鈥檙e going to need more than a bi-partisan commission. You鈥檙e going to need a catastrophe.
Heck, we could cut the budget in half an hour. We鈥檇 just get rid of everything that was not part of the original plan 鈥� that is, everything that was not necessary for the defense of the country or the maintenance of law and order. We鈥檇 have a huge surplus overnight鈥nd lynch mob by daybreak.
Deficits are a big problem. They鈥檙e not going away. We鈥檙e not going to 鈥済row our way out鈥� of them. Left unchecked, the country will go broke. So you can expect a lot of pantywaist proposals and pussyfooting around on the subject in the years ahead. And then the country will go broke.
The big item is health care. It seems to grow uncontrollably. Americans don鈥檛 want to give it up.
We went to the doctor today. We paid $220, in cash. That was the end of it.
鈥淐ome back next year,鈥� she said.
Seems controllable enough to us. If we don鈥檛 have $220 we won鈥檛 go back.
But Americans seem to like going to doctors and hospitals鈥specially if someone else pays for it.
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